Courtesy: USAT

Note: Due to unexpected heavy rain, the swim portion of Sunday's New York ITU World Cup and the Ford New York City Triathlon have been cancelled. Water quality tests have proven the heavy rain has caused the Hudson River to be unsafe.

The races have been changed to duathlons, featuring a 5k run, followed by the originally planned 40k bike, and final 10k run.

International Triathlon Union (ITU) world ranking points will still be given out for the World Cup race as if the race was a triathlon.

New York has always been a world-class city. Now it is hosting its first International Triathlon Union (ITU) World Cup triathlon on Sunday, featuring many of the best triathletes in the world. The World Cup is being held in conjunction with the Ford New York City Triathlon, which is the amateur race.

The New York ITU World Cup is the fifth stop on USA Triathlon's Race to Athens elite race series. Every race is worth ITU points good toward Olympic qualifying. Athletes must be ranked in the top 125 in the world to try to qualify for the 2004 Games in Athens, Greece.

The last two years, the New York City triathlon has served as the U.S. elite national championship and was closed to international competition. Now the rest of the world has been invited to swim 1.5k in the Hudson River, ride 40k around Riverside and Central parks and run 10k on the streets of New York and through Central Park.

"The New York triathlon has been a fantastic event," said USA Triathlon Executive Director Steve Locke. "Having the world's best triathletes there just makes it that much more exciting."

Seven of the world's top 10 men are expected to start: Australia's Greg Bennett (ranked No. 1 in the world), Chris Hill (No. 2) and Peter Robertson (No. 9), Spain's Ivan Rana (2002 world champion, ranked No. 4 in the world), New Zealand's Bevan Docherty (No. 5) and Hamish Carter (No. 10) and Ukraine's Volodymyr Polikarpenko (No. 8).

Three of the top U.S. men - Hunter Kemper, Victor Plata and Doug Friman - will be in the Dominican Republic on Sunday, competing in the Pan American Games.

However, the United States is still sending a solid men's team featuring Joe Umphenour (Bellevue, Wash.; No. 22 in the world, No. 2 in the United States); Brian Fleischmann (Jacksonville, Fla.; No. 30 and No. 3); Mark Fretta (Portland, Ore.; No. 32 and No. 6); Andy Kelsey (Cupertino, Calif.; No. 55 and No. 7); Seth Wealing (Fowler, Ind.; No. 68 and No. 8; the defending champion); Andy Potts (Princeton, N.J.; No. 81 and No. 9); Marcel Vifian (Santa Rosa, Calif.; No. 101 and No. 10) and Christoph O'Donnell (Cambridge, Mass.; No. 132 and No. 12).

The women's race will feature Barb Lindquist (Victor, Idaho; No. 1 in the world and defending race champion), who has won ITU World Cups this season in Ishigaki, Japan, and Edmonton, Canada; and Laura Reback (North Palm Beach, Fla.; No. 2 in the world), who won World Cups in St. Petersburg, Fla., and Tongyeong, Korea.

Missing will be world and U.S. No. 3 Sheila Taormina, who will be at the Pan American Games along with U.S. teammates Becky Gibbs Lavelle and Julie Swail.

However Australia's Liz Blatchford (No. 9) and Michellie Jones (No. 15) will both be out to win along with Canada's Carole Montgomery (No. 5) and Great Britain's Michelle Dillon (No. 13).

Other U.S. women on the start list are Joanna Zeiger (Baltimore, Md.; No. 23 in the world and No. 4 in the United States), Susan Williams (Denver, Colo.; No. 32 and No. 5), Jessi Stensland (San Diego, Calif.; No. 66 and No. 7), Amanda Pagon (Glenn Dale, Md., No. 69 and No. 8), Laurie Hug (Ambler, Pa.; No. 81 and No. 9) and Kelly Rea Cook (Marietta, Ga.; No. 101 and No. 11).

The elite race will follow the 6 a.m. amateur race. The elite women will start at 99th Street and the Hudson River at 8 a.m. and the elite men at 10 a.m. The race finishes near the Band Shell in Central Park.

Complete information is posted to www.triathlon.org.